Canucks anthem singer Mark Donnelly loses 172 pounds on HCG diet

VANCOUVER, B.C.: FEBRUARY 12, 2011 -- Mark Donnelly sings the national anthem, February 12th, to open the 2010 Winter Olympic one year anniversary in downtown Vancouver.Ward Perrin
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VANCOUVER, B.C.: FEBRUARY 23, 2012 -- Singer Mark Donnelly, well known for his singing of the national anthem at Vancouver Canucks games, has lost 172 pounds to date on the HCG diet. The diet involves injecting the pregnancy hormone and going on a 500-calorie diet. He hopes to lose another 12 pounds. Thursday, February23, 2012 .Jenelle Schneider
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VANCOUVER, B.C.: FEBRUARY 23, 2012 -- Singer Mark Donnelly, well known for his singing of the national anthem at Vancouver Canucks games, has lost 172 pounds to date on the HCG diet. The diet involves injecting the pregnancy hormone and going on a 500-calorie diet. He hopes to lose another 12 pounds. Thursday, February23, 2012 .Jenelle Schneider
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WHITE ROCK, BC -- June 23, 2011 -- Singer Mark Donnelly opens his home in White Rock on June 23, 2011. This is Mark in his studio.Wayne Leidenfrost
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Vancouver B. C. 042303 MORE THAN LUCKY.... Mark Donnelly a local singer ( and teacher) who has sang the National anthems at the Canucks games has the Canucks winning most nights he sings to the packed house at G.M. Place..... see Amy O'Brian cityside. story Mark van Manen/Vancouver Sun.Mark van Manen
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Vancouver Canucks anthem singer Mark Donnelly had tried almost every weight-loss plan in the book — Atkins, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and even the grapefruit diet — before he hit upon the one that enabled him to drop 172 pounds over the last year and a half.

It sounds unorthodox: cut your calories to 500 a day — about a fifth of the recommended daily intake for men — and inject yourself with the pregnancy hormone (human chorionic gonadotropin or HCG) to suppress your appetite.

Donnelly’s doctor was skeptical about the plan, but the results were dramatic. Donnelly lost 45 pounds over the first month and his test results came back better than ever.

He did four more rounds of treatments, which last from three to six weeks.

During that time he injected himself with HCG and ate 100 grams of protein, usually lean chicken or seafood, two servings of fruit and one serving of vegetables twice a day. Treatments must be spaced out at increasing intervals: six weeks, then eight weeks, then 12.

Donnelly is now within 12 pounds of his target weight, and while he says he will work to lose the rest through exercise and responsible eating, he said it is unlikely he will take any more hormones.

“Right now I feel great the way I am. My clothes fit better than they ever have in my life. This is the first time it’s fun to put clothes on.”

However, many doctors, as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, say the HCG diet is dangerous.

Dr. Hanh Huynh of the University of B.C.’s pathology and laboratory medicine department warns any diet that recommends cutting calories to such a degree is “totally irresponsible.”

This is because the body will consume non-fat tissue — such as muscle — as well as fat when it is deprived of food, he said. These non-fat tissues absorb excess glucose in the bloodstream, which the body would otherwise store as fat, he said. This means that when the person’s diet returns to normal, more glucose is stored as fat than burned off as energy, causing them to regain the weight.

“Everybody needs to be aware that when you are trying to lose weight, there is no magic bullet.”

Richard Mathias, a professor at UBC’s school of population and public health, said HCG’s supposed appetite-suppressing properties are entirely fictional.

“What’s happening is that you’re basically eating very low carbs and very low fat,” he said, explaining that ceasing to eat carbohydrates, especially sugar, after eating them for a while has the effect of suppressing your appetite. “Nothing to do with hormones.”

Anyone who restricts their calories to such an extent will lose a dramatic amount of weight, he added.

“At 500 to 600 calories, you’re well into starvation. ... So if you have some protein around, which is what you’re basically eating, the body will use its greatest source of calories, which is fat. That’s a basic physiological response to starvation,” he said.

HCG has been authorized in Canada for treatment of fertility-related issues in women and men since the 1980s, Health Canada spokeswoman Christelle Legault said in a statement, but is not authorized for use as a weight-loss treatment.

“There is no scientific evidence that the use of HCG, either orally or as an injection, could promote weight loss,” she said. “When used to treat a condition for which it is not indicated, such as weight loss, HCG could cause a number of serious side-effects. In women this could include painful cysts occurring as the result of over-stimulation of the ovaries.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned over-the-counter HCG weight-loss products and calls the 500-calorie-a-day limit “hazardous” on its website.

Donnelly, who now weighs about 220 pounds, emphasized that the HCG diet is not for everyone and advised people wanting to lose weight to listen to their bodies in order to determine what works for them.

“I don’t want people to come away thinking that I’m pushing the HCG diet, even though without it I wouldn’t have been able to do what I was able to do,” he said. “But the way I view it is it happened to be the thing that worked for me.”

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